Neuroprotective effect of Decalepis hamiltonii aqueous root extract and purified 2-hydroxy-4-methoxy benzaldehyde on 6-OHDA induced neurotoxicity in Caenorhabditis elegans.

In this study, we investigated the possible neuroprotective efficacy of Decalepis hamiltonii tuber extract against 6-
Hydroxy dopamine (6-OHDA) induced neurotoxicity and associated effects in Caenorhabditis elegans. The major
component of flavour rich extract from D. hamiltonii is 2-hydroxy-4-methoxy benzaldehyde (2H4MB) which is an
isomer of vanillin. We have conducted preliminary experiments with different types of extracts and subsequently
DHFE (D. hamiltonii Fresh Tuber Extract) and DHPF (D. hamiltonii purified 2H4MB fraction) were used for further
studies. Here we attempted to enumerate the neuroprotective efficacy of the above compounds in worms by
evaluating behavioural and mitochondrial function, dopamine content and selective degeneration of dopaminergic
neurons in BZ555 strains in comparison with control and 6-OHDA treated organisms. The relative expression
levels of selected antioxidant genes involved in defence mechanism like SOD-3, GST-2 and GST-4 were
evaluated along with those of CAT-2 and DOP-2 at mRNA level. We observed that both DHPF and DHFE exhibited
significant levels of neuroprotective property against 6-OHDA induced neurotoxicity, which was evident
in mitochondrial/dopaminergic function and antioxidant defence mechanism.